Posts Tagged ‘sugar’

I know. Intense title. I get tongue tied every time I try to say it. But words stop when you bite into one. Oh Em Gee. These things are amazing. You’ve got the richness of cheesecake with the comfort of chocolate chip cookies and then the crust of the cheesecake. Uh! Words do not do it justice. Take a look:

1. Preheat the oven to 325 F. Line an 8″ square baking pan with parchment paper or foil allowing a little overhang and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.
2. Mix the melted butter and graham cracker crumbs until thoroughly combined. Press the mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan. Bake in preheated oven for 6 minutes. Remove pan to a cooling rack. Leave your oven on while you prepare the dough.
3. While the crust is cooling, prepare the chocolate chip cookie dough. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, salt and vanilla until smooth and thoroughly combined, about 1 minute. Mix in the flour on low speed, and mix until just incorporated. Mix in the chocolate chips. Set aside.

4. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl with an electric mixer cream together the cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Mix in the egg and vanilla on low speed just until incorporated. Pour the cheesecake batter into the prepared crust. Using your hand to form clumps, distribute the cookie dough onto the top of the cheesecake batter in teaspoon-sized clumps. Be sure to use all of the dough.

5. Bake for about 30 minutes, until the top feels dry and firm (the cookie dough) and the entire pan looks set if given a gentle shake. Move bars to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely. Chill in refrigerator overnight or for at least a couple hours.

6. Lift the bars out by the overhang and cut into squares for serving.

The amendment I made to this recipe is the crust of the cheesecake. My favorite cheesecake crust is actually made from Biscoff cookies crumbled with butter, instead of graham crackers. Seriously delicious. Since this recipe is in such a small container, it doesn’t make very much. I think next time I’ll double the recipe so I can share and keep some for myself. My other recommendation is that the cookie can be hard to cut through so you may want to strategically place the cookie dough or cut it while it’s warm so as it cools, the dough may be easier to cut. Just a thought.

I came across this delicious treat when a girl from work made Oreo Balls for our staff Halloween party. After I took a bite, I knew I needed the recipe! It is seriously one of the easiest recipes I may ever post on this blog. (It’s easiest if you have a food processor.) Here you go

Procedure:
Empty package of oreo cookies into food processor and blend until powder consistency. You may have to adjust the cookies if they get all piled up. I added a few at a time to help the process. Empty container of cream cheese into food processor. I recommend it being room temperature so it blends easier. I had to work it into the oreos a bit more than I had hoped, but the moment came when it all mixed perfectly. Next, scoop out equal balls of oreo mixture onto a parchment covered cookie sheet, shape into spheres and refrigerate for 20 minutes or until cold.

Melt chocolate (if you’re good at tempering, do that now, or use candy melts) and dip each ball into the chocolate. Decorate as you wish. I used some of my favorite Valentine’s sprinkles: X’s & O’s!

Growing up, my mom would make pull aparts with us girls. I think other people call it monkey bread, but that’s not what we called it growing up! It’s super easy and so delicious!

Ingredients:
One pack of biscuits
Cinnamon Sugar
Butter

Directions:Preheat oven to 350. Spray a pan (growing up we used a square cake pan, but I used a round cake pan this time). Put pan on burner and melt enough butter to cover the bottom. Once all the butter has melted, pour cinnamon sugar over butter until all absorbed (or however much you prefer). Now you want to cut up the biscuits into small pieces and fill the pan so each piece of biscuit touches some butter and cinnamon sugar. Bake it for however long the biscuit container tells you. (Usually 12 or 15 minutes?) Once it is baked, dump the pan over and reveal the beauty of pull aparts!

This is a childhood favorite of mine and I look forward to baking this with my future children. 🙂